Speaking to Al Mayadeen news channel, Ziad al-Nahala said that when the ceasefire was reached they were about to target Tel Aviv.

A leader of the Islamic Jihad said in a televised interview that he expects war with Israel to break out by next summer.

Speaking to Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese news channel, on Tuesday night, Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ziad al-Nahala described the most recent escalation against Israel as “just preparation for the greater battle.”

“The resistance in Gaza is fully prepared for any war,” Nahala said, adding that when the ceasefire was reached, they were about to shoot rockets at Tel Aviv.

The Islamic Jihad leader further said that the weekly protests at the border with Israel will continue. He explained that a first test for the ceasefire will take place next Friday, which marks the commemoration of “Nakba Day,” the Day of the Catastrophe, as Palestinians refer to the foundation of the State of Israel. He vowed that if the demonstrators are hurt, there will be retaliation.

The Palestinian terrorist group has strong ties with Iran and with the Lebanese group Hezbollah, and they are sometimes seen as a rival faction to Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

However, in the interview, Nahala said that the group’s cooperation with Hamas is solid.

“We were with Hamas in Cairo and we made a joint decision to activate the Joint Operations Room to respond to the aggression of the occupation,” he explained, describing how the decision to launch the escalation against Israel was taken.

Some 700 rockets were fired against Israel over the course of last weekend, before a ceasefire was reached on Monday.

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